Press Releases

Fashola Urges Fair Treatment Of Accused Persons
• As LASG donates 12 operational vehicles to Prison Service

Apr 20, 2009 - Lagos State Government, Monday donated 12 operational vehicles to the State Command of the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) just as the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) insisted that accused persons must be treated fairly until proven guilty.

The vehicles, consisting of four 30-seater Toyota Coaster buses and eight Toyota Hilux pick-up vans, were donated under the auspices of the State’s Justice Sector Reforms in fulfillment of a promise made earlier to the Command by the State Government.

Speaking at a short handover ceremony in front of the Lagos House, Alausa, Governor Fashola said in making the donation, the State Government took cognizance of the fact that there are constitutional safeguards to ensure that people who violate the laws of the land and charged with offences are treated fairly.

“We recognize that within the provisions that require that sanctions be effected, there are constitutional safeguards to ensure that people who violate these laws and charged with offences are treated fairly’, the Governor said, pointing out that the people are entitled constitutionally to expeditious and fair trials.

“The buses you now have are a marked departure from the Black Maria. They are air-conditioned buses. They are important because until those people accused of crime are proven to have committed the crime, they remain innocent and must be treated as ordinary citizens who have a case to answer”, the Governor reiterated, pointing out that the condition under which the accused are conveyed from end to end could not be any less safe.

He noted that the State Government decided to intervene following a request by the former Controller of Prisons in the State who, according to him, brought the matter of logistic problems as one of the challenges facing the Command in its efforts to effect expeditious trials of suspects.

Commending the immediate past Controller in the State for bringing the matter forward, Governor Fashola declared, “The lesson from this is that people with responsibility in office must not sit down and surrender when there are problems. They must bring those problems to the fore to be solved”.

According to the Governor, “Though these are matters not directly within our responsibility, we think that the proper attitude should be one that focuses less on blames and decides to take responsibility whenever problems occur. This is why we are intervening, not because we are awash with money but because we fill that justice reform is a critical component of of our responsibility as a State”.

“All of what we do is governed by laws to protect those who comply and sanction those who break these laws. The law is the only thing that protects all of us in society”, Governor Fashola said.

The Governor, who assured that the Government was also addressing other problems within the court system, said, “We are building about 200 courtrooms and they are going to be provided with digital court recording devices and verbatim court reporters who are already in training”, adding that all of these would start getting ready for handover and operation later in the year.

Describing the Magistrate Court as the peoples’ court, Governor Fashola declared, “By the time 200 courts distributed across the State and equipped with technology and with these buses and operational vehicles become operational, I think that we would have struck impactfully towards increasing the efficiency of the provisions of the Constitution that stipulates fair and speedy trail”.

In his remarks, the Controller of State Command of the Nigerian Prison Service, Mr. Benjamin Bogunjoko, had expressed gratitude to the Governor and the State Government for the kind gesture, saying the command had been operating under very difficult challenges.

According to the Controller, who said he was amazed on seeing the vehicles when he arrived the State House, the Lagos State Prison Command has the highest inmates in the country, adding that the challenges the Command is facing are tremendous.

Thanking the Government on behalf of the Federal Controller of Prisons, Bogunjoko gave assurance that the vehicles would be put to judicious use for the service of the people.

Earlier, in his introductory remarks, the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Olasupo Shasore had given a short history of how the donation came about recalling that it was in response to the request made by the former Controller of Prisons in the State while on a courtesy call on the Governor of the State.

According to him, the former Controller had raised the issue of logistic problems confronting the State Command of NPS and requested the Governor to intervene, adding that the Governor subsequently gave the directive that the vehicles be bought and donated to the Command.

Also present at the short ceremony were members of the State Executive Council.